Abby Wambach didn’t win the World Cup trophy she so desperately wanted last summer, but today the Pittsford native captured the most prestigious individual honor in her illustrious career when she was named The Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. She’s the first male or female soccer player in history to capture the award. The 31-year-old Our Lady of Mercy High School graduate led the United States to a runner-up finish in the World Cup in Germany. Her dramatic header in the final seconds of the quarterfinals against Brazil tied the match and led to a victory on penalty kicks, but the Americans would end up losing an equally riveting final on PKs to Japan despite what looked like it’d be another Wambach winning goal in overtime.

The 31-year-old forward won the award easily with 65 of the 214 votes cast by members of The AP. Teammate and goalkeeper Hope Solo (38 votes) was second and University of Connecticut basketball player Maya Moore (35) was third. The AP award started in 1931. As a team, the United States women’s soccer squad won the honor after their triumph in the 1999 World Cup.

Wambach, whose last-gasp goal against Brazil won the ESPY Award for “Best Play,” also became the all-time leader among U.S. players in World Cup goals and is third all-time. Her 125 career goals in her 10-year international career ranks fourth in history behind only Americans Mia Hamm (158) and Kristine Lilly (130) and Germany’s Birgit Prinz (128). Wambach’s performance in Germany – she led the team with four goals in six games – and the way the Americans played despite not winning the Cup resonated in Rochester and around the world. Only three days after the loss to Japan and after appearing on talk shows such as Good Morning America and The Late Show with David Letterman, Wambach was greeted like a rock star in her hometown. She was in Rochester with her Women’s Professonial Soccer club team, magicJack, for a game against the Western New York Flash. The match, which Wambach didn’t play in due to an injury, drew a league-record 15,404 fans to sold-out Sahlen’s Stadium. Wambach received a 43-second standing ovation when introduced to the crowd. Earlier that day, her appearance with fellow U.S. players Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Ali Krieger at an event at Eastview Mall in Victor drew 2,000 fans, many of them young girls screaming with excitement.

Wambach is currently training with the U.S. squad in Los Angeles. Qualifying for next year’s Olympics in Canada starts next month, Jan. 19-29 in Vancouver, B.C. She helped lead a veteran-laden American squad to Olympic gold in Athens, Greece in 2004. Another header from her in OT was the decisive goal and began to build her stardom as her strike helped send stars such as Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain out on top. Now, it’s Wambach’s whose career is winding down. A four-time winner of U.S. Soccer’s Female Athlete of the Year, she will be 35 by the time the next World Cup rolls around in 2015. She has said she hopes to be healthy enough to play but an Achilles tendon injury has bothered her for more than a year.

Wambach was named the Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year for team sports in New York City in October. She is also a finalist for FIFA World-Player-of-the-Year honors. She has finished in the top five four times but never higher than fourth. That should change soon. The other FIFA award finalists are Brazil’s Marta, who helped lead the WNY Flash to last year’s WPS Championship in Rochester, and Homare Sawa. She led Japan to the World Cup crown.

The victory over Brazil also was named the top sports accomplishment of the year in a Marist poll and the Women’s World Cup overall ranked 10th in the voting for AP sports story of the year.

ABBY WAMBACH … in her words

ON THE AWARD: The most important thing and what people may or may not realize with individual honors, especially (being) on a team, is you’ve got to first and foremost have to thank your teammates for allowing you the opportunity to be a position to win any award. I believe this is a team award.

ON INSPIRING OTHERS: ”I think it shows what we did over in Germany and think it gives even more credit to the things we accomplished over there, whether it be one game, one goal or getting people excited about women’s soccer and sports again.”

ON HERACHILLES TENDON: “I have good days and bad days but I don’t have any worry about the qualifying tournament next month in terms of my health.”

ON COMPETITION: It’s not going to be easy. We definitely know our opponents are better than they’ve been in the past 15, 20 years so we have to come our playing well.

ON NEXT WORLD CUP IN 2015: “It’s so far away it’s hard to say what I’m going to be doing then. Obviously, there are so any factors that go into what is in store for my future. Being the most important is my health and whether I’m capable of playing at this level in a couple of years and the other thing is obviously the coaching. If we have a new coach, they might have different ideas and might want to bring in their own different personnel. That’s something all players have to understand and live and learn and deal with.”

ON BEING A COACH SOMEDAY: “I don’t know. I think maybe coaching last year (with magicJack in WPS) solidified the fact that I never want to be a coach. Truthfully, I enjoy playing and that’s the only thing I’m concerned with. If that were to be an opportunity that I have later on in my life then maybe I’d consider it then. But I enjoy playing way more than I enjoy coaching right now.

ON HER LEGACY: “Hopefully in 20 years (fans) are not talking about me. Hopefully, they’re not talking about anybody on this (my) team. Hopefully they’re talking about stars of the current team and what they’re doing and the names that they’re making for themselves. I think that legacy’s are fun and cool to talk about but really what we’re doing now is hopefully getting this team in a position that we can stay on top forever. We want to create that mentality. We want to create that tradition here. The women who came before me did it.

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Jeff DiVeronica has covered professional soccer and the Rhinos for the Democrat and Chronicle since the team's inception in 1996. "Devo's Direct Kicks" takes aim mostly at Rochester soccer, but will also highlight the USL, MLS and U.S. national team play. Devo, his nickname since college at St. John Fisher, also hosts two weekly radio shows each Saturday on WHTK-AM/FM (1280/107.3 or www.whtk.com). "Kick This!" (11 a.m.) features soccer talk, while the Canandaigua National Bank High School Sports Show (noon) covers Section V sports. E-mail Jeff at jdiveron@DemocratandChronicle.com.
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